Cheating the margins

If you cheat too much your likely to get caught. I have never allowed myself to get into that habit because it's not addressing the underlying problem just the symptoms. If your script is falling in at 65 pages but you can stretch it via cheating to 90 you haven't changed anything. Your still don't have enough story going on and it will get noticed even if they don't realize you've cheated. Likewise with a 150 page script. It's too long. You're going to end up with a 3 hour or longer movie and all that time spent covering up the fact that it's too long could have been better spent tightening up the story and making it snap and pulling all the drag out of it so it zips through the story, grabs the audience, and doesn't let go.

I believe those options are there as Derek suggests to tweak the final product so it looks pretty, but has nothing to do with spec writing. Also different types of scripts probably have their own unique requirements.

stuckupmyownera said:

That's pretty much what I thought. Strange that the 'industry standard' software appears to condone it then, by having these features!

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But you have to understand that the "industry standard" software is also designed to be used by anybody for any reason.

If you're writing a screenplay for a high school assignment and it's supposed to be ten pages -- squeeze away. Adjust the margins any way you want. That's between you, your teacher, and the final draft software. If your teacher doesn't care -- why should anybody else?

But certain things are pretty much industry standard. You might be able to squeeze a spare space or two into the margins widths -- or if I wanted to get in an extra wide parenthetical or character name I might adjust that -- but other than that, you kind of leave it alone.

And you certainly don't squeeze the line spacing because that is really obvious to the eye.

Now, having said all that, I'll tell you what I *do* do -- specifically in Final Draft, to cut pages.

Final Draft -- at least the version that I use, have a whole series of specific rules that define when text gets bumped to the next page. It not only won't let you have a slug line or a character name orphan at the bottom of the page, it won't let you have a character name with a single line of dialogue, or a slug line with a single line of text at the bottom of a page -- so if that configuration comes up - it bumps those three lines to the following page and leaves a space.

That rule produces a very interesting effect -- because all you have to do is change one line and it can cause a three line contraction or expansion at the bottom of the page -- but it doesn't stop that. That one contraction can pull text back on other pages, which changes the rule on still other pages and causes other "contractions" and still other contractions and other contractions that cascade throughout the script.

The result is -- and I've seen it happen with Final Draft -- is that one can remove one word, which changes one line, and the result is that the script is suddenly half a page shorter -- or add a word and the script is suddenly half a page longer.

So what I always do, with scripts in Final Draft, is that I go through them and every block of text (and dialogue if it makes sense) that has a widow at the end -- that is, one or two words at the end of a line -- I rewrite it slightly to remove those extra words.

I also, of course, give it a quick once over to remove any excess wording, redundant dialogue, just tighten it generally, but nothing excessive. It's quick pass aimed at those excess words.

And inevitably, just removing those few words, because of that Final Draft rule, will cause the program to tighten up to the point where I've lost like four to five pages over the course of a hundred to a hundred and ten pages.

NMS

Margins, etc.

If you are using Final Draft with the Courier Final Draft font, do not change the line spacing from the default "normal" to "tight" or anything else. Leave it on normal.

Why?

Because with "normal" and that particular font, you will get the proper line spacing of six lines per inch. (This is measured from the base of an "a" in line 1 to the base of an "a" in line 7. Yes, from line 1 to line 7 for 6 lines per inch.) This "normal" line spacing is already pretty tight. Don't cramp it even more by tightening it up.

The only time you will want to use "tight" is when you use a different Courier font, which will probably not have a default of six lines per inch. (Other Courier fonts will default to something like, roughly, 5 lines per inch.)

As for margins, no absolute standard exists. However, it is almost universal for the left margin (for action) to be 1.5". Top, right, and bottom margins are roughly 1". Dialogue lines vary. The left margin is almost universally set to begin 1" to the right of the left action margin. The right margin of dialogue, however, varies. I like to let a dialogue line run to about 38-40 characters (3.8" to 4"). However, some people like shorter lines, no longer than 35 characters (3.5").

This feature is not something I'm familiar with as I don't use FD, but I don't understand it's purpose. If your script is a short, write a short. If it's a feature and it's too short you need to ask yourself: what am I missing? How can I enrich the character description, or the plot twists? If the script is too long, what is perfunctory or repetitive?, etc.

You can adjust a line here or there if there's issues with how a line of dialogue, say, flows from one page to the next. Don't let the software write for you. Take proactive action to make your story more solid. Making the font bigger only annoys readers.

This may sound crazy but I believe that FD's feature of tight, loose and normal is meant for use with specific readers and at various points of production.

Not for the writer to mess with per-se.

"Loose" for actors who need more white space or production people to have space for hand written notes.

"Tight" for those people who want to save pages when printing.

Also, I think it also has to do with the ability to shift line formats since TV script vary from Film and so on.

Bottom line. Use Normal and if you need to cheat do what I do.

For a script that is too short = write some more action and dialog. or put key action sentences on a new paragraph.

For a script that is too long = kill your orphans (single words on a new line) rewrite action to it's leanest but most succinct form, and if need be you can change only one element, preferably Dialog (since it has the most variability in script formats), by adding .125 to .25 on both sides of the margins.

As for margins, no absolute standard exists. However, it is almost universal for the left margin (for action) to be 1.5". Top, right, and bottom margins are roughly 1". Dialogue lines vary. The left margin is almost universally set to begin 1" to the right of the left action margin. The right margin of dialogue, however, varies. I like to let a dialogue line run to about 38-40 characters (3.8" to 4"). However, some people like shorter lines, no longer than 35 characters (3.5").

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I sometimes 'cheat' lines to make a page end where I want it to, to save one line or so. The above 'rules' have enough room in them to save a line or two on a page. I might do this on five or six pages in a 110 page script, but it always leads to future difficulties because any editing requires that I remember where I 'cheated' and undo the cheats.

That's why I don't do it until I have a 'final draft' I intend to submit to someone. Otherwise, it's just not worth the time.

I don't see how changing the formatting for a whole script can possibly work, it will look either 'too white' or 'too grey' at first glance. That'll get it tossed by any seasoned reader pdq.

Interestingly, Movie Magic Screenwriter has an optional (pay extra!) plugin which scans your script to look for page-saving options. it doesn't play tricks with margins or spacing, but searches for opportunities where changing a single word can save a full page, such as changing a character name from Alexander to Alex. None of it is cheating. It basically does what you can try manually, but it helps make the decisions for you by calculating how many pages each change will save. See their promo page here: Streamline Click on the "View a walkthrough" link to see a 3-minute demo.

I haven't tried this plugin, because it only works for Macintosh (boo!), but it looks like an excellent idea.